I bite my lip; it feels like he’s trying to tell me off. And weirdly, I want to listen. Like, somehow, I’ll behave if he tells me to.
The way his eyes roam over me just makes my cheeks heat more. I don’t feel creeped out, I feel sexy. Wanted.
Then he shakes his head, as if he’s fighting himself. His head tilts, and he takes a step forward, and all the air is sucked out of my lungs.
“And if you do answer the door. You make sure you wear more clothes,” he tells me, his voice low and possessive as hell.
I blink at him, words not forming on my tongue. My body is reacting in the complete opposite way than I’d expect.
Because that possessive tone, it doesn’t push me away.
It wants to draw me closer to him.
He turns and heads outside without another word.
I stay there, leaning against the counter, heat creeping up my throat.
And for reasons I can’t explain, I know I’m not alone anymore.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Drago
Song - Look to Windward, Sleep Token
This is the first time in nearly eighteen years of protecting her that I’ve spoken to her. That I’ve been invited into her space without hiding in the darkness.
And fuck, she stole my breath away. It’s worse than I ever thought it was.
Being around her isn’t just a distraction.
It will be my entire fucking downfall.
She wouldn’t remember me from when Lev took me in. She was too young to notice the people who stayed in the background, too young to remember the danger that already surrounded her.
I never had that luxury. Even as a kid, I was trained for war. He raised me, but it wasn’t in a family home built on the foundations of love and safety. He took me out hunting. Notanimals. Men. I was raised on the side of evil. The side he kept Lily away from.
I never lived in the house with his family. Lev kept me in his penthouse while he trained me. He broke me down and built me into something useful. Something that could survive the things he couldn’t protect her from. He created me to watch out for her. Not to fall for her. And I didn’t. I kept to my word.
Until five years ago.
When her mother took her to America, my assignment changed. Distance became deliberate. Silence became safety.
I flew out when it mattered, stayed invisible, and made sure she was healthy. I watched the milestones from the edges of rooms and took photographs for Lev so he could see his daughter grow without him, so he could pretend the cost was worth it.
I told myself that as long as she was smiling, what we were doing in Russia hadn’t reached her. That the blood stayed on the other side of the world.
Then came the ballet recital. She was safe until that night. That was the moment everything fractured.
I didn’t just see her then. I found her. Broken open in a way no one should ever be. Terrified. Shaking. Still breathing, but barely.
I held her in my arms.
I stayed all fucking night to make sure she was okay. Every moment was like agony, where all I wanted to do was hold her and tell her it would be okay. That I was there, that I always will be.
I broke my rule of staying in the shadows. But I still kept that safety net there; seeing her like that broke my heart. It created a monster inside of me that I didn’t know could exist.
That’s why I didn’t let her see me. I didn’t say a word. Because I’m not a man to be put on a pedestal as her savior.
